ROFFS™ Fishy Times Newsletter – 51st Edition – Happy New Year from ROFFS™, Most Telling Images from Space & World’s Largest Floating Solar Plant 

NEWS

Happy New Year from ROFFS™

Above: It is that time of year. Happy New Year from ROFFS™!!!

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The Year’s 7 Most Telling Images from Space

Article courtesy of www.climatecentral.org published on December 25, 2014 By Brian Kahn – please click here for original article

What’s better than a year-end list? A year-end list . . . from space.

As of July this year, there were 1,235 satellites in operation by countries around the world tracking everything from carbon dioxide to the weather. Throw in the International Space Station and you’ve got one heck of an Earth-observing system circling this fair planet.

The images and data from that system provides a perspective on the natural processes that shape the world and reveals the ways that humans are altering it. And they can make even everyday things look otherworldly. Like lightning. Lightning is even cooler from space.

So with that in mind, here are the seven most telling images of the state of the Earth in 2014 as seen from beyond the atmosphere.

Above: Photo Credit NASA Earth Observatory.

PLEASE CLICK HERE to view the remainder of the year’s 7 most telling images on our website now…

World’s Largest Floating Solar Plant Planned for Japan

Article courtesy of news.discovery.com posted on Dec. 24, 2014 // By: Glenn McDonald – please click here for original article.

If you’ve ever been out in a boat on a hot summer day, you know that open water gathers a lot of sun and heat. Engineers in Japan are hoping to harness that power with the construction of what will be the planet’s largest floating solar power installation.

2014 Renewable Energy Recap: Oil Down, Solar Up

Japan’s Kyocera Corporation has already leveraged the power of open water with shoreline solar installations like the fixed Kagoshima Nanatsujima plant, pictured above. The new project, however, will be built around 50,000 solar collection modules actually afloat on the Yakamura Dam reservoir.

The modules will cover a water surface area of around 180,000 square meters. Engineers estimate the plant will generate more than 15.6 megawatt hours (MWh) per year. That’s enough to power approximately 4,700 average households.

Above: An image of the Kyocera Corporation’s existing Kagoshima Nanatsujima power plant in Japan. The company’s new project will be the largest fully-floating solar installation in the world.

PLEASE CLICK HERE to read more on the building of the worlds largest floating solar power plant in Japan on our website now…

Biggest Fish in the Ocean Receives International Protection

Article courtesy of westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov posted Dec 2014 – please click here for original article.

Whale sharks are among the largest living fish in the world – weighing up to 40,000 pounds and 40 feet in length. They are also so docile that humans often swim with them without concern, snapping photographs of their incredible size.

But it is exactly their enormous bulk that had an international commission adopt restrictions protecting them from impacts associated with the international tuna purse seine fishing in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO).

Commercial fishermen have known for some time that tuna, along with many other species of fish, congregate around objects drifting on the ocean surface. Fishermen often build floating structures called FADs, or fish-aggregating devices, to attract tuna to an area, allowing them to capitalize on this behavior. Using FADs makes the job of finding and encircling the tuna in the purse seine nets much more efficient.

Above: Whale shark photos by Dave Witting, NOAA Fisheries

PLEASE CLICK HERE to read more on the protection of Whale Sharks on our website now…

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